Saturday, November 16, 2013

In response to the comments of Ashfaq Taufique in The News October 27, I think that he is cosmeticizing comments about "the faith" of Islam. I do believe that all Muslims are not likely prone to violence, but all are commanded by the Qur'an to wage jihad on the non-Muslim. Jihad is doing anything that contributes toward taking down the non-Muslim country for Allah.

I do not believe that American converts to Islam are told all the truths about Islam, particularly women, or they likely would not join.

The quest of orthodox Muslims is to take over the world for Allah in an Islamic caliphate (empire). This includes violence as well as non-violent kinds of jihad. Qur'an 9:5 states "kill the kafirs wherever you find them. Take them as captives, besiege them, and lie in wait for them with every kind of ambush. If they submit to Islam, observe prayer, and pay the poor tax, then let them go their way. Allah is gracious and merciful."

Islam is mostly political, militant, legal and financial. It is a theocracy. Islam is demanding that the West observe Islamic legal code, Shariha Law, in attempts to progressively destroy our country in a civilizational jihad from within. A Muslim Brotherhood Memorandum captured by the F.B.I. in 2004 states this strategy and goal.

House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, speaking for the Capitol Police Board's review of this September's mass shooting incident at the Navy Yard, confirmed yesterday that Capitol Police superiors did in fact order CP's fully geared-up SWAT team (CERT) to retreat from the scene of the ongoing slaughter. From Roll Call's Hannah Hess:

“The facts are clear that the CERT was initially directed to the incident command post, and the facts are clear that they did not make it to the incident command post,” Irving said. “We also have radio transmissions from a Capitol Police unit at the command post that reflected they would be unable to make it due to heavy traffic congestion”

Irving tries to present the order to proceed to the command post as an order to proceed towards the Navy Yard, where the command post would presumably be set up, but it is an established fact that the CERT team was already at the scene of the ongoing slaughter before any order from superiors was received, making the order to proceed to the incident command post an order to retreat from the scene of the shooting.Here is what we know about the situation at the time that the CERT team first contacted their superiors (from the BBC, 9/18/13). The CERT team, which had coincidentally been near the Navy Yard, heard directly about the active shooter situation and had already gotten itself in position to intercede when superiors were first contacted:

Multiple sources in the Capitol Police department have told the BBC that its highly trained and heavily armed four-man Containment and Emergency Response Team (Cert) was near the Navy Yard when the initial report of an active shooter came in about 8:20 local time.

The officers, wearing full tactical gear and armed with HK-416 assault weapons, arrived outside Building 197 a few minutes later, an official with knowledge of the incident told the BBC.

According to a Capitol Police source, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Washington DC's main municipal force, told the Capitol Cert officers they were the only police on the site equipped with long guns and requested their help stopping the gunman.

When the Capitol Police team radioed their superiors, they were told by a watch commander to leave the scene, the BBC was told.

In a bizarre twist the Roll Call report does not provide this context, allowing Irving to get away with his pretense that the order to proceed to the incident command post was an order to advance rather than an order to retreat (or "stand down"). The title of Hess' article refers to the "stand down" controversy ("Congress Unlikely to Intervene in 'Stand Down' Controversy"), but the article itself never addresses whether the CERT team was told to stand down. Hess must simply be ignorant of the most basic facts of the story she is supposed to be covering. Why else would she fail to report the biggest scoop a young reporter is ever likely to have dropped in her lap? It's not like this is a partisan issue where our Democrat-dominated media has a strong interest in presenting the police as helpless to protect the public from active shooters. This slaughter could have been stopped by the police and confirmation of that fact would seem to be a plus for the Democratic Party's anti-gun position that we should all be willing to trust the police for our defense without feeling any need to be prepared (by bearing arms) to defend ourselves.In any case, Hess has left this story unbroken, leaving the opportunity for others to break it, as I for one am glad to do. So thank you Mr. Irving for providing us with the content of that communication between the CERT team at the active shooting scene and their superiors. They were told to retreat to the "incident command post," which at that point would have been back at headquarters, since no forward command post would yet have been established. And thanks to Hannah Hess for accepting Irving's ludicrous spin that the CERT team was blocked by traffic from reaching the shooting scene that they were calling from, allowing me to break what should have been her scoop.As for the CERT team's failure to complete its retreat to the yet-to-be-established "command post," supposedly because of "traffic," the real story isn't hard to figure. They never made it to their designated retreat point, not because of traffic, but because they would have been beside themselves with anger and shame. They should have disobeyed the stand down order and risked being fired rather than allowing the slaughter of innocents to proceed. It is not surprising that they would accept any excuse (traffic) to not return to the masters who ordered this betrayal of their purpose and their trust.UPDATE: It seems there was an already established "incident command post" when CERT received its order from Capitol Police superiors to retreat there. This advance post must have been created by the District's municipal police, not the Capitol Police, and is presumably where the CERT team was told that they had the only long guns on site and were asked by the municipal police to help stop the shooter (as reported by the BBC above). They say that they arrived immediately at the command center and only moved aside while awaiting orders from Capitol Police headquarters. From Hess' report:

The union disputes that claim [that they never reached the incident command center], saying that the CERT officers arrived at the incident command post within minutes of the first call for assistance but relocated to ensure other first responders could reach the incident while they awaited further instructions from the Capitol Police.

Sorry for getting this wrong in my initial write-up, but the only change in the interpretation is that it makes Irving out to be a bold-faced liar. He said that the CERT team never got to the command post when they clearly did, supposing that is where they were asked to help stop the shooter. But he is still admitting to the stand down order. The ordered retreat is just now a shorter retreat, back to the nearby command post, but it had to have been an order not to engage the shooter or the team would obviously not have left the scene.(Crossposted at my Error Theory blog)

CASH FOR CLUNKERS SUCKED.
THE RUSSIAN RESET SUCKED.
THE LIBYAN WAR SUCKED.
HAS HE BROUGHT ANY OF THE BENGHAZI TERRORISTS TO JUSTICE? NOPE.
THE STIMULUS SUCKED.
THE GREEN ECONOMY SUBSIDES SUCKED.
THE USA'S CREDIT RATING SUCKS.

CBR's Corey Blake has added himself to the list of would-be opinionators who're going out of their way to shill for Marvel's forced introduction of a Muslim Ms. Marvel, beginning with:

Marvel’s announcement last week that a Muslim teenager living in New Jersey will star in the new Ms. Marvel series is an exciting step forward in diversifying superhero comics. And even better is the involvement of writer G. Willow Wilson and editor Sana Amanat, both Muslims, which should bring an authentic voice to the title.

Perhaps Blake would do well to study the meaning of taqqiya (deception), and would explain why that's just not so. And why this is just a step backwards in diversifying, contrary to his naive beliefs.

The move is already garnering a lot of media attention, and I expect it will pique the curiosity of a number of people who never really expected a mainstream comic book to tell a story so closely connected to their own. This isn’t the first comic book to do something like this, but it’s remarkably significant.

How, exactly? At one time, launching a new character straight off the bat worked. When they were their own creation and role, that is. But these days, it takes more than just that to do so. If you're introducing a new character taking up a mantle once used by another, you have to build them up before tossing them into the designated role proper. By the time Wally West took over for his uncle Barry Allen as the Flash, he'd already had a quarter-century worth of history in the DCU, and that's why his ascension from Kid Flash to adult Flash worked. By sharp contrast, when DC's editors in the 90s introduced Kyle Rayner into the role of Green Lantern, forcing Hal Jordan out in the horrific manner they did, one of the main problems is that Kyle was a totally brand new character stepping into the role first taken by veteran characters like Alan Scott and Hal. Unlike those guys, Kyle had no established history in publication, and, unlike Connor Hawke, illegitimate son of Green Arrow, and Jack Knight, younger son of Starman, he had no relatives or other close friends/connections to superheroes in the DCU, nothing to give him any significant link. It shouldn't be a surprise then that he couldn't hold even a newbie's attention for long, what with writing that was as fun as watching paint dry, and rendered him a cypher.

In the case of the new Ms. Marvel, what may undo this book in the end is something similar done with Kyle Rayner's introduction - publicity stunt tactics, along with the fact that they're trying to force a horrific belief system down everyone's throats while remaining dishonest about it.

I’m looking forward to Ms. Marvel, and I really hope the comic finds an audience (I’m also thrilled to see artist Adrian Alphona back on an ongoing series). But there’s no doubting this title is an underdog. Marvel often struggles with keeping solo series starring women; just ask fans of She-Hulk, or Rogue, or Carol Danvers. Poor Storm can’t even get more than a miniseries every 10 years or so. DC may be able to boast Wonder Woman and a number of female-starring Batman spinoffs, but both publishers have had limited success sustaining books that star minority characters. From Black Panther to War Machine to Steel to the current Batwing, there have been valiant efforts that ultimately get canceled. And I’m hard-pressed to think of a significant Marvel or DC book starring a character whose religion was such a strong crux of the premise.

Readers and retailers are notoriously uneasy about trying a book that could be considered at-risk. That’s why Marvel and DC fall back on their major brands: They know they can market Wolverine because enough of their customers faithfully follow the character, even while complaining he’s in every other book. Instead of buying what sounds interesting, too many readers would still rather support what they can be assured will be around for the long run.

He's getting at something he'd probably rather not: when DC published their Justice League/The 99 crossover miniseries a few years ago, it ended up dumped in stores, premiering with very low numbers and no fanfare, a telling sign that store managers - and even DC themselves - must have realized they had a dud on their hands that quite a few people were realist enough to see through, and didn't want to risk having something gathering dust on their shelves that nobody wanted. This could end up the same way, as even some Muslims don't care for such a series beyond its obvious propaganda purpose.

As for series starring minority characters and women, a plausible reason why they haven't succeeded is because in some cases, if not all, they've been very rushed, though nowhere nearly as much as this new example. Though I must point out that in the case of She-Hulk's newer series, they did more than a bit to sabotage its success by relaunching it with another number one issue, and in the end, I'd say that with people like Dan Slott writing, that's why it just wasn't worth the effort.

There’s also the issue of the Captain/Ms. Marvel brand: Despite the acclaim of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Carol Danvers run, Captain Marvel has never proved itself to be a character that can support a franchise. The fact that the character’s superhero name has changed from Ms. Marvel to Warbird to Captain Marvel to whatever else demonstrates the branding challenges. The original Captain Marvel, Mar-Vel, was never a stellar seller, either, despite the acclaim of “The Death of Captain Marvel” story. Despite a few teases, there’s a reason he’s never been brought back to life, after all. An attempt in the ’90s to introduce a new male Captain Marvel didn’t work out either. It’s not that it can’t work, but most retailers know at least some of that history and order accordingly because they don’t have a lot of faith in the name bringing in readers.

If he's alluding to Peter David's two different volumes starring Genis-Vell, son of Mar-Vell, there's a reason for that: Bill Jemas, who turned out to be the worst thing that could happen with Marvel at the time, forced David into a competition with an Image-style title he would write called Marville. A real waste of trees and monetary resources that may have ultimately discouraged readership for David's writing too.

And his citation of Jim Starlin's 1982 graphic novel is ambiguous: no, Mar-Vell of the Kree hadn't been a big seller during the 15 years he was around, but the GN was written with the precise purpose of giving Mar-Vell a very respectable sendoff at the end, since, unlike a lot of the shock deaths you read about today, with one person being killed by another, he died of cancer. And Starlin took by far the best path, far from forced, and more's the pity his example never inspired later writers and editors to try the same approach.

Either way, how could the Capt. Marvel of the times be a big seller if the ongoing series came before the GN and not after? Poor Blake, he's all confused.

And since when didn't Ms. Marvel, if we go by the solo book that was around in 2006, not theoretically prove itself successful? As badly as it was handled with ties to crossovers like Civil War, it still ran about 50 issues. Yet I must concur that, based on the hints I gave, it wasn't a success. But that's mainly the fault of Joe Quesada and company, who precipitated the modern crossover disaster and squandered any potential for character drama by forcing the crossover illness upon that series to boot.

That’s a lot of bad news for the upcoming Ms. Marvel. If it’s so doomed, why did Marvel even bother? Whether or not the book succeeds, it’s clear Marvel sees something changing in its readership. There were lots of reasons why Miles Morales as Spider-Man should never have worked — and yet, there he is still web-slinging two years later. Yes, sales have weakened. Whether the character stays around following the current “Cataclysm” event running through the Ultimate Universe remains to be seen, but the character has been demonstrated to be more than just a stunt. It’s also possible that the book’s sales were pulled down, at least in part, due to the imprint’s luster diminishing over the last five years or so; it’s not just Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man‘s sales that have weakened, but the entire line’s.

I wonder if it's because they hope to flood the bargain bins with tons of unsold copies? I'm honestly alarmed at how the upper echelons of the conglomerate that owns Marvel today see nothing wrong with their wasting tons of money to publish series they have no idea how to market along with series that only serve as political propaganda. Money that Disney would surely think better spent on projects with more potential.

And poor young Blake, what a shame he thinks a character written as an Islamist is a big deal...but not one who's of French, Armenian, Romanian, Australian, Macedonian, Ghanian, Swiss, Finnish, Peruvian, Chilean or Croatian background. Or, more precisely, how facinating he never thinks to write suggestions for publishers based along those lines, nor does he encourage old and new writers to take up the challenges themselves. Seems like people of his standing would rather comment on what's already been done than make suggestions for what could be done. So I guess we know who's failing the comics then. It's the opinionators, maybe more so than the publishers they pay lip service to, because they don't think creatively or try to encourage and inspire a wide array of ideas.

The Greek Supreme Court, with a recent decision, puts the sacred law of Shariah above the laws of the Greek State, thus Greek Muslims cannot draw up a will, as this is something that is not included in the Shariah law. This complicates the situation since in 1946, Greek Muslims draw their wills according to the Greek civil law.

This case was brought to light by Komotini’s newspaper “Chronos.” The newspaper reveals that the Greek Supreme Court annulled a will that was drawn up by a Muslim man before he had passed away, as this is not determined by the Islamic Inheritance jurisprudence. The deceased Muslim lived in Thrace and in his will made clear that he left all his belongings to his wife, as the couple did not have any children.

The proceedings against the will begun by the sister of the deceased Muslim, as she claims that Shariah does not determine inheritance jurisprudence, and as a result the will is invalid and she wants to take her fair share of her brother’s fortune.

In other words, the Greek court denied Muslims living locally the right to their local laws for all the wrong reasons. As though it weren't bad enough there's a neo-nazi party called Golden Dawn running around in this once fine country leading to disaster just around the corner.

An Israeli soldier died after he was stabbed multiple times in the neck Wednesday morning by a Palestinian youth on a bus at the central bus station in Afula.

The soldier, 18-year-old Eden Atias of Nazareth Illit, was evacuated to the city’s Haemek Hospital. Doctors operated on him in an attempt to stabilize his condition but he succumbed to his injuries a few hours later. [...]

Passengers on the bus, which was en route from Nazareth Illit to Tel Aviv and had stopped at the Afula station, captured the stabber and turned him over to security guards, who in turn delivered him to police.

“The bus stopped and people had stepped out,” an eyewitness who gave her name as Yaffa told Channel 2. “A female soldier was left on the bus, along with the soldier [who was stabbed] and the terrorist. Suddenly the female soldier started screaming for help, she ran outside, she was shaking. The terrorist had stabbed the soldier, he was covered in blood.”

[...] The suspect is a 16-year-old Palestinian resident of Jenin who did not have a permit to work or reside in Israel, according to police.

Again, this is pretty much the result of showing weakness in the face of evil, by releasing murderers back into the wilderness. The government of Israel will have to apologize for what they've led to.

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," that Russian forgery purporting to reveal a Jewish cabal bent on world domination, may not be acceptable dinner conversation any more. But repackage the sentiment as criticism of Israel, and say that the Jewish lobby controls U.S. foreign policy against "true" American interests, and voilà, you are no longer dabbling in nasty old tropes about sinister Jewish power, but in bold political analysis.

Thus, when former British foreign minister Jack Straw, during a conference last month in the House of Commons, listed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its allegedly "unlimited" funds among the greatest obstacles to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, he thought nothing controversial about it. For many Europeans, U.S. support for Israel—the only democratic ally in a sea of dictatorships, terrorism and civil war—remains so unfathomable that they can only explain it as the product of nefarious Jewish money for equally nefarious purposes.

If a Labour MP can speak publicly like this without triggering any rebuke from his or other parties or from the mainstream media, one can only imagine what is said privately in daily European life.

Particularly in Britain, where this is almost a norm. To be sure, a lot of the anti-semitism in Europe now is the product of Muslim communities. But, even among indigenous Europeans, it's still obviously a terrible problem, one that may still take centuries to repair.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The publishers of comic books are obsessed with the politically correct. Diversity and quotas are more important than dispatching evil. Spider-Man has been reimagined as a black Hispanic teenager. The Green Lantern is out of the closet. Early next year, Marvel Comics rolls out a Muslim superheroine.

I just wish they'd be more specific, because the mixed-race Spidey can be found in the remnants of the Ultimate line. In the MCU proper, Web-head's been reimagined as a mad scientist named Dr. Octopus who hijacked the body of Peter Parker. And they should clarify which GL has been reimagined as a closet case. Namely, Golden Age GL Alan Scott.

Ms. Marvel, unlike her paper-and-ink comrades, won’t advocate for “truth, justice and the American way.” If she wants to find a place on newsstands in Muslim countries, she’ll have to be careful not to anger militant Islam, even if she takes on the Great Satan. She can take her cues from Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week to mend fences and promptly climbed atop one. When reporters asked him what he thinks of the growing protests of Saudi women demanding the right to drive a car, he replied that he’s all for equality except when he isn’t. “We embrace equality for everybody, regardless of gender, race or any other qualification,” he says. “There’s a healthy debate in Saudi Arabia about this issue, but I think that debate is best left to Saudi Arabia.”

Ms. Marvel probably won’t appear in comic books in Saudi Arabia, anyway. In the storyline, Ms. Marvel’s mother is “paranoid that she’s going to touch a boy and get pregnant,” Ms. Marvel’s co-creator, Sana Amanat, a Muslim editor at Marvel, tells The New York Times. Her father thinks she should concentrate on becoming a doctor. Ms. Marvel’s most daunting challenges, however, might come not from supervillains, but from her brother, who the editor describes ominously as “extremely conservative.” Conservatives, extreme or otherwise, rare in comic books, are usually megalomaniacal industrialists and other bad guys.

Indeed, that is correct; there's almost no chance Khan will ever appear in the House of Saud, since under the Religion of Peace, with its narrow view of women, even a character adhering to such a bad religion is considered haram (taboo), even if she were wearing a niqab. No inspiring roles for women are allowed there, and there's other Islamic countries that aren't far behind in that kind of censorship.

The citation of the brother being a boilerplate "conservative" is interesting. Obviously, Muslims are the only kind of "conservatives" whom the left has no issue with, and the only ones to whom they could give a free pass and depict in a positive light. While there's little or no chance it'd turn up in this propaganda, what the paper's alluding to is Muslim honor murders, and the possibilities that a girl in a Muslim family who wants to make her own choices in life would be murdered for just thinking about it.

Marvel Comics insists that it won’t evangelize for Islam, but the comic book industry promotes eerie lifestyles. DC Comics‘ venerable Green Lantern came out as homosexual in June 2012, about five months after the Archie Comics’ character Kevin Keller wed his black “boyfriend.” DC’s Batwoman, a lesbian, was not so fortunate. Her writers quit in protest in September after the publishers told them Batwoman could never marry. This is odd, because a lot of fans have been trying for years to figure out the exact relationship between Batman and Robin.

Oh great, they're risking sensationalism. Only the most PC-leftist of would-be Batfans have ever been trying to figure out what Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson's relation is. Others see it as simply a father/son, uncle/nephew or big/little brother relationship. They should be careful about sounding sensational. But eerie is right on homosexuality, and it's probably worse than their leftist obsessions with race (and religion, if they consider the one in question fitting for their PC visions).

But if love conquers all (which it rarely does), the publishers could allow Batwoman to marry Ms. Marvel, and they could argue over who converts to whatever. That might only upset Ms. Marvel’s “extremely conservative” Muslim brother, but comic books are just funny books for everybody else.

It’s little surprise that the editorial board of the conservative Washington Times didn’t embrace the announcement that the new Ms. Marvel is a 16-year-old Muslim from New Jersey, but the newspaper’s actual response is a bit ... bewildering. One might even describe it as eerie.

And it's no surprise at all that he'd be as incensed as I figure he is that a right-wing paper would dare to voice disapproval at a story that's more than 99 percent likely to depict a bad religion in the most whitewashed fashion. Nor is it surprising if he's never read the Koran, to understand why they're unimpressed, though I think the paper is at fault: why not cite some verses from the Koran to explain why? The thing is, if they did, Melrose probably wouldn't take any notice.

Beginning a Sunday editorial with a declaration that “diversity and quotas are more important than dispatching evil” — because, as we all know, heroes can’t be diverse and fight villains! — the writer engages in a little concern trolling, warning that Ms. Marvel, and by extension Marvel, will have to be careful not to anger “militant Islam” if there’s any hope for newsstand sales in Muslim nations. Of course we’re told in the very next paragraph that, “Ms. Marvel probably won’t appear in comic books in Saudi Arabia, anyway,” which apparently takes care of that problem.

Very funny. Nobody's saying you can't be part of a different race and fight evil. What the paper was really saying is that, for mainstream publishers, diversity is more important in every way than good storytelling, and the bulk of the past decade featuring diversity has not borne an ounce of good writing or other valid steps to justify its being. It figures people like him wouldn't care, yet aren't brave enough to admit it. And isn't he a little disappointed if Kamala Khan won't be showing up in Saudi stores? Gee, and we thought people like Melrose hope American products can sell into more foreign markets at ease! Guess we were mistaken. And maybe he should look at himself in the mirror to see who the real "concern troller" is.

In case you’re playing along at home, the newspaper in the course of one paragraph: labeled homosexuality as “eerie”; felt the need to use scare quotes around boyfriend, and single out the race of Kevin Keller’s future husband; and dig up that chestnut about Batman and Robin. Who had the trifecta?

Answer: Melrose, and he loses all the chips he's bet on the wheel at the Vegas gambling den. So, he's basically claiming homosexuality is normal, and that sure is rich for somebody who probably comes from the same school as the MSM reporters who'd bring up Michelle Malkin's race for no apparent reason to say they "singled out" the race of the partner. What the paper is alluding to is how Archie's editors are resorting to an interracial marriage between two gays for the sake of more absurdity with "diversity". If this were simply an interracial marriage between a white guy and a black girl, or a black guy and a white girl, no concern or complaints would or should be made. But Melrose, in all his lefty biases, can't figure that out.

The editorial saves the best — or, rather, the “best” — for last, though, by tossing out what one could only presume is an inter-company crossover in which the decidedly adult Batwoman marries the 16-year-old Ms. Marvel. Now that’s class.

Hmm, does this mean he does have a problem with Muhammed's marriage to Aisha, who was only 6 when he bought her as a concubine? He'd be surprised at how many Muslims wouldn't have a problemwith such a marriage...if it were between a male and the teenaged girl. (To my knowledge, some American states allow marriage for 16-year-olds with special permission from parents, and so does Britain.) What the paper was alluding to is how in real life, the brother/father could commit an honor murder against the girl if they thought she were a lesbian, and something like that almost did happen in Nebraska last week. Alas, that's all lost upon Melrose, who prefers to belittle the newspaper out of dislike for righties, and there's no chance his putdown has anything to do with what the Koran and Hadith tell about the "prophet" of Islam.

My only problems with the Wash. Times' approach is their teetering towards the sensational and their shortcomings in specifications. Melrose and company's are that they would dare to be conservative in the first place. Too bad they've decided to put their heads in the sand.

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas delivered an ultimatum Tuesday, saying that unless Israel cancels tenders announced earlier Tuesday on 20,000 new homes in Judea and Samaria he would end the ongoing peace talks.

PA negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that he had been given the job of passing the ultimatum to the Arab League as well as the US, EU, Russia, and UN.

Israel's newly announced building plans elicited a similarly negative response from America. US State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki expressed "deep concern," adding "we were surprised by this announcement and are currently seeking further explanation from the government of Israel."

Psaki furthermore echoed US Secretary of State John Kerry's position that the US deems Jewish building in Judea and Samaria as "illegitimate."

In essence both the PA and US have called for a de facto Jewish building freeze during the ongoing peace talks despite the supposed absence of such preconditions.

The aggravating part is that the Israeli government is likely to cave to this atrocious demand and not show the courage to make clear that this is a national right and undemocratic to demand they cease. It requires some serious response. As for Abbas, he can go to hell for all I care.

Monday, November 11, 2013

In 2008, the Conservative writer, son of William F. Buckley, Jr., and writer of the Back Page column for the National Review, Christopher Buckley, wrote a column for the Daily Beast entitled, Sorry Dad, I'm Voting For Obama.

As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament,” pace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous comment about FDR. As for his intellect, well, he’s a Harvard man, though that’s sure as heck no guarantee of anything, these days. Vietnam was brought to you by Harvard and (one or two) Yale men.

As for our current adventure in Mesopotamia, consider this lustrous alumni roster. Bush 43: Yale. Rumsfeld: Princeton. Paul Bremer: Yale and Harvard. What do they all have in common? Andover! The best and the brightest.

I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. He is also a lefty. I am not. I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets. On abortion, gay marriage, et al, I’m libertarian. I believe with my sage and epigrammatic friend P.J. O’Rourke that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.

But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves.

If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.

Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.

An article revealing the connections between Women of the Wall and leftist groups in the present had been posted to a major website but was taken down after possible threats of legal action. Nevertheless, other sources were able to obtain the information, and tell us that:

The article was penned by Rachel Avraham, a news editor and political analyst for Jerusalem Online News, the English language internet edition of Israel's high-rating Channel 2 News, and reveals ties between Women of the Wall and a number of radical, anti-Israel groups.

“While Women of the Wall has built up a name for themselves as a feminist organization promoting women’s rights in Israel, their leadership in fact have links to anti-Israel groups that not many people know about,” writes Avraham in the piece.

“Regardless of whether one views their actions as provocative publicity stunts that disturb the peace at the Western Wall or as noble deeds designed to promote women’s rights within the Jewish religion, the Israeli public is generally not aware that the Women of the Wall leadership possesses links to anti-Israel groups.”

“Women of the Wall Vice Chair Batya Kallus serves as an adviser to Sikkuy,” writes Avraham. “This NGO is a signatory to the Haifa Declaration, which calls for the abolishing of the State of Israel, praises violent resistance, and accuses Israel of manipulating the memory of the Holocaust for political purposes. Furthermore, Kallus has facilitated funding for anti-Israel groups Adalah, Ir Amin, Yesh Din, and Mossawa, as part of her position as programs officer for the Moria Fund.”

The article goes on to point out that these groups contribute towards the delegitimization of Israel in the world. Adalah was a major contributor to the discredited Goldstone Report and together with Mosawah is opposed to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state; Ir Amim runs “highly politicized anti-Israel tours of the holy city, which indoctrinate internationals into holding anti-Israel views,” and Yesh Din views Israel to be an apartheid state, and demonstrated support for Turkey after the Gaza Flotilla incident.

Woman of the Wall Chair Anat Hoffman “also happens to be the chair of the Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem,” which is a part of Al Aqsa Grassroots, an anti-Israel network that supports "resistance to the occupation" and is against the "Judaization of Jerusalem," in addition to supporting the Palestinian right of return to Israel, reveals Avraham.

Before the 1993 Oslo Accords, she adds, Hoffman was the chairwoman of Women in Black, a group that advocates giving all of Judea and Samaria, as well as eastern Jerusalem – which includes the area of the Western Wall, or Kotel – to the Palestinian Authority.

And it makes me depressed that I felt I would have to go out of my way to argue the free speech rights of a group whose leaders could have shady ties to vile movements. At worst, this is embarrassing.

But this is exactly why I'm even more disgusted than ever at the Haredi sources who were going out of their way to raise a ruckus at the Western Wall, because it only helped to give Hoffman all the spotlighting she wanted. As far as all the cursing from Haredi hooligans is concerned, she may be disappointed on the surface, but underneath, you can be sure she's gleaned satisfaction from how some of the Haredis otherwise proved themselves lacking in manners. I always suspected that the Haredi opposition to WotW had nothing to do with any of these legitimate beefs, and went along a superficial line of dislike for alien customs. (I won't be surprised if Bnei Akiva's near opposition was the same.) Another grave error with their approach. If WotW were disturbing the peace - something the menfolk could do too - that's another legitimate argument to make. But apparently, none of those more valid beefs ever served as a reason for opposing them, and were squandered on childish cursing over dislike of foreign ideas.

Let us be clear: if Haredis would improve their educational curriculum right down to featuring Proverbs 18-21, then WotW would never have gotten this far. We can only thank the Haredi leadership for spectacularly failing to wise up and realize they'd cause all the damage and embarrassment they're going to cause if they keep this up.

Greenfield sums this up nicely:

Women should be able to pray at the wall, but that right shouldn’t be hijacked by left-wing activists with a history of undermining Israel.

And the field for discussion of free speech issues should not be left for the left to monopolize. Israel Today also makes a good argument about why WotW's Reform-based customs are so abnormal for women:

Despite what radical voices may tell you today, the ancient Jewish tradition that exempts women from many commandments did not result out of the minds of “chauvinist pigs.” Quite the opposite, these exemptions were established out of concern for women who simply found it overwhelming to keep up with certain commandments along with child birth, child rearing and housekeeping.

To give but one example, the holy duty to wear phylacteries [tfillin] performed during the time of the Morning Prayer cannot be interrupted, a stipulation that under no circumstances should be required of nursing women. Likewise, the specific commandments regarding women’s purity made it difficult for them to read from the Torah, hence they were exempt from this duty.

Well to be fair, reading from the Torah at a synagogue isn't as difficult as tfillin prayer, so depending on one's view, that's not nearly as worrisome. But the tfillin matter is definitely a legitimate belief and argument, and that's why women are only obligated to take steps like reading psalms and candle lighting on weekends. So yeah, that makes for a valid argument why Reform customs are so sloppy. I honestly don't know why a fine writer like Dr. Phyllis Chesler is involved with them. I understand that she's worried about women's rights, but it shouldn't be at the cost of legitimizing leftards.

Khaled Abu Toameh wrote about the latest attempt to have the PLO tyrant Yaser Arafat's death declared the result of poisoning:

The nine-year-old Palestinian allegation -- that Israel had poisoned Arafat -- was this time based on the findings of Swiss scientists who conducted tests on his remains and soil taken from his grave.

But a thorough reading of the Swiss scientists' report shows that their findings are inconclusive. Still, the Palestinian Authority [PA] is not willing to let the facts stand in its way.

The scientists wrote that "taking into account the analytical limitations, mostly time lapse since the death and the nature and quality of the specimens, the results moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-201."

However, Russian scientists who also examined Arafat's remains have said that there was insufficient evidence to support the the claim that Arafat may have died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.

The Swiss and Russian scientists did not conduct a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Arafat's death. All that they did last November was take samples from Arafat's body in a bid to determine the cause of death.

But for the PA leadership, the inconclusive findings of the Swiss scientists was sufficient enough to once again hold Israel responsible for the "assassination of martyr Yasser Arafat."

Of course they won't accept even an inconclusive report. It does not fit their micro-view. Nevertheless, I will make clear in my own words that, if Arafat had been poisoned, he would've deserved whatever he got for all the murders he conducted as PLO dictator, and his victims included 2 American diplomats. He deserved to be punished, and it's actually a shame it didn't happen that way. Still, he'll be in hell at this point, so he'll be getting punishment in any case.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

US Secretary of State John Kerry painted a very bleak picture of what would be the result of a break-down in the current Israeli-Palestinian talks, warning on Thursday of a third intifada and international isolation of Israel

Kerry's warnings came in an unusual joint interview with Channel 2's Udi Segal and Maher Shalabi of Palestine TV.

"The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos," Kerry said. "Does Israel want a third intifada?"

The Secretary of State's warnings of a third intifada came two days after a poll conducted by the Arab World For Research & Development showed that only 29% of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians said they would support a third intifada, though 60% believe one is possible.

[...] "I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis, if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel, three will be an increasing campaign of the de-legitimization of Israel that has been taking place on an international basis," he said in the interview..

"If we do not resolve the question of settlements, and who lives where and what rights they have; if we don't end the presence of Israeli soldiers perpetually in the West Bank, then there will be an increasing feeling that if you cannot get peace with a leadership that is committed to non-violence, we may wind up with a leadership that is committed to violence," he added.

So instead of warning the Islamists that they shouldn't be going out of their way to act violently if they don't get their way, he warns the Israelis they should do as demanded. His remarks drew an angry protest:

Dozens of protesters gathered to condemn US Secretary of State John Kerry Sunday at Jerusalem’s US Consulate for remarks he made Thursday about the prospect of a third intifada due to Israeli intransigence, which they said resulted in the Friday firebombing of a car in Judea.

The protest was scheduled to feature the charred remains of the vehicle allegedly firebombed by Palestinian terrorists Friday in Gush Etzion, narrowing killing the married couple inside, but police did not permit it to be delivered to the event sponsored by the YESHA Council. [...]

Participants at the Sunday morning protest denounced Kerry for inciting Friday’s violence, which resulted in the couple’s hospitalization at Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem Medical Center for moderate burns after their vehicle was struck by several Molotov Cocktails. [...]

MK Orit Struk (Bayit Yehudi), of Hebron, who survived a similar attack on a bus she was traveling in through the West Bank last Monday, said Kerry is responsible for an imminent third intifada.

“He was trying to threaten us with a third intifada and I know that the intifada is already here – and it’s here because of him and the terrorists he set free,” she said.

“It’s a shame that the secretary of state of the United States is on the side of the terrorists,” Struk added.

Meanwhile, Jeff Daube, director of the Israel office of the Zionist Organization of America, condemned Kerry’s rhetoric on behalf of his agency.

“As far as the ZOA is concerned we wonder why Kerry is not mentioning any of the acts of Palestinian terrorism in general, and this one in particular,” he said. “He will be responsible, as far as we’re concerned, for any uptick in violence.”

Daube went on to caution Kerry of the powerful consequences of his words.

“I’m hoping the secretary of state will give more thought to his comments in the future because this could have deadly consequences,” he added.

Brevoort, who's long become a joke as an editor for Marvel, got a message on his Tumblr site from a guy who'd researched the Koran, noting that Islam is a religion of violence and deceit, in response to their launching a series with a Muslim lead. At first, Brevoort's only reply was: "Straight from the 1950s". Then, he got another message saying:

So instead of refuting my argument, or challenging my assertions, you simply say "you're anonymous so that's why I don't answer your questions." So instead of answering you turn the point into an attack on the validity of the poster on the already fairly anonymous internet (as if I couldn't make a tumblr account that is 99% anonymous...). You'll make an excellent republican strategist one day...

He merely replied:

Go ahead and make a tumblr account that is 99% anonymous then.

People with names get priority.

Looking at his site with a lot of the already nameless queries posted, that's disputable. Then, he got this message:

"Straight from the 1950s." Really Tom, are you that ignorant? Have you actually read the Koran, cover to cover? I have. Have you actually studied the origin of Islam and its history? You folks did a tribute book to the heroes of 911. Did you forget that event already. I am not a bigot, I am a realist. You don't see Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, or people of any other faith carrying out unprovoked attacks on innocent men, women and children do you? Islam is a religion that promotes hate.

And he just merely replied:

I certainly remember the events of 9/11.

I do not extrapolate the actions of specific people into a blanket condemnation of all similar people.

That is bigotry. That is ignorance.

Good grief, Tommy, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel! If you don't think there's any difference or distinction between race and religion, just say so! We're not taking people belonging to specific races to task, we're just taking people of specific ideological standing to task, as per the belief of Martin Luther King, that we should judge people by color of character and not color of skin. Obviously, Brevoort must realize there's evidence to back up the argument that Islam is a hatemongering belief system, yet he's so callous and selfish, all he can think to do is find another way of saying, "I know better than you/everything I'm talking about, so shut the crap up. I don't want to talk about it". By his logic, it's wrong to even condemn communism, and at this point, quite a few leftists have apparently shifted to that opinion too, unfortunately.

This does make me wonder though, what Brevoort thinks of the late cartoonist Will Eisner, whose last graphic novel, The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, dealt with anti-semitism in the Muslim world, as he himself boldly stated in one of his last interviews to the New York Times in 2004. Do people of Brevoort's standing consider Eisner the ignoramus they won't admit they themselves happen to be? Maybe Brevoort doesn't think so, but he's condemned a decent man like Eisner along with pretty much every sensible critic of Islam. I've got a bad feeling that if Eisner were alive today and tried to point him in the direction of facts, he'd shun him as badly as he did the people who asked him questions on his site.

Once, Brevoort was a well regarded editor for Marvel. Now, he's proven himself completely unworthy of the job he's got. Nor does he make a good successor to many of the past veterans with better grace and manners than he has.